Canton Planning Board considers two projects

CANTON  The town Planning Board will have public hearings at 7 p.m. Tuesday on an expansion for Parkway Properties on County Route 25 and on a special permit for a slaughterhouse on Howardville Road.

The work at Parkway will be for construction of a $500,000, 7,500-square-foot automotive sales and service center at 1655 County Route 25, the Hollis Brown property. Mr. Brown was the original owner of the auto dealership.

The building on the 14-acre site will allow Parkway to separate its GM and Dodge dealerships to better meet a corporate model for separate identities.

A Parkway spokesman did not return a call for comment.

Parkway already has received a variance from the town Zoning Board of Appeals.

The Hollis Brown lot is in a rural zone that could not be attached to the commercial business without a variance. The dealership was able to prove to the ZBA that the hardship necessitating the variance was not of its own making, town Planning Board Chairman Michael K. Morgan said.

The Planning Board will look at the siting of the building, lights, snow removal and other aspects of the plan, he said.

The Planning Board also will consider a special permit for Joseph Briggs to operate a slaughterhouse at 251 Howardville Road.

A special permit would bring Mr. Briggs, who already is operating a business, into compliance with the towns regulations.

Mr. Briggs could not be reached for comment, but Mr. Morgan said the animals are dispatched elsewhere  such as the farm where they were raised  and the carcasses then are brought to Howardville Road for butchering.

He says he wants to stay a one-person shop, Mr. Morgan said.

The town recently changed its regulations on slaughterhouses, allowing them in rural zones in addition to commercial zones.

There have been recent inquiries by several people about starting other slaughterhouses because of the interest in locally raised produce.

This all came about as part of a larger discussion, Mr. Morgan said.

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